LAHORE: After claiming responsibility for the Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park blast, the Jamaatul Ahrar, an offshoot of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), declared on Monday the start of a new campaign, “Sound of Thunder”.

The group posted an Urdu communiqué on its Facebook page on Sunday claiming the attack on Christians in the park and followed up on Monday with a photo of the bomber, identifying him as Salahuddin Khorasani.

The Jamatul Ahrar had claimed responsibility for suicide bombings at two churches in Youhannabad, Lahore, in March 2015, and justified the attacks by terming Pakistan a “land of war”. It had stated, “Now the Christians, Jews, and Zorastrians living in Pakistan have neither converted to Islam nor are they paying Jizya. Under these circumstances, Christians, Hindus, etc, are not at peace, nor are their places of worship safe.”

Jamaatul Ahrar is a banned organisation which has been involved in a number of dastardly terrorist attacks in the country.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2016